For the fourth straight season the aerials World Cup opener has taken place in China with Beida Lake resort serving as a stage for this weekend's action. In the individual competition it was Mengtao Xu (CHN) and Anton Kushinir (BLR) who finished the day on top of the podium and earned the first 100 points in the aerials World Cup ranking.
Following the qualifications held under the blue sky, the last year's winner from Beijing Guangpu Qi and his Chinese teammate Fanyu Kong led the pack of top 12 ladies and top 12 men into two rounds of the finals.
After missing almost entire last season, Mengtao Xu is back in the game as she stormed to victory today claiming her 17th career's top podium spot. Chinese skier showed extremely solid jumping throughout the day, stomping perfectly both of her final tricks - back Full Full and back Double Full Full. Earning the score of 94.47 Xu outscored second today Danielle Scott (AUS) by more than 7 points, as her skiing looked like a nice throwback to her excellent 2011/2012 World Cup season form.
"I'm very happy to be competing again and taking the win in front of the home crowd here at Beida Lake. It feels great to get the yellow bib right from the start and I'm very excited for the World Cup season and the World Championships in Sierra Nevada" said Xu following the award ceremony.
Representing Australia Daniele Scott took the second place on the day with a score of 87.06 for her back Double Full Full in the second round of the finals.
"I'm very happy with this result. I did some very good jumping so beginning the season with the second place feels very satisfying" said Scott.
Russia's National Champion from Chusovoy, Liubov Nikitina rounded up the ladies' podium with well executed back Full Full and the final score of 82.53 points. Third place at Beida Lake is also Nikitina's best career results since she first appeared on the World Cup tour in Beijing back in 2014.
On the men's side the 2014 Olympic Champion Anton Kushinir made a strong statement in the last round of the finals, throwing down a perfect back Full Double Full Full for a score of 115.05 points. Returning from a long break from competitive skiing, following his gold medal performance in Sochi, Kushinir came back on top of the World Cup podium. With impeccable technique and solid landings Belorussian skier is looking strong heading into the 2016/2017 season and is certainly the one to look out for in the overall World Cup ranking.
"It's been some time away from competitive skiing and I have to admit I've really missed the sport. It feels awesome to be back and to win the World Cup, especially here in China where you can always expect the highest level of competition" said Kushinir.
Top qualifier and the winner of the last year's opener at the Bird's Nest Stadium Guangpu Qi finished the day one spot behind Kushinir, falling short to the Belorussian aerialist only by half of a point. Despite leading the way all day long throughout qualifications and the first round of the finals, Guangpu wasn't quite able to stomp the landing clean on his last back Double Full Full Full and had to settle for the second place. Nonetheless, the Chinese skier seemed to be fully satisfied with his performance and looked excited for Sunday's team event.
Another Chinese athlete Hang Zhou took the men's third place with a score of 95.58 points for his back Full Double Full Full.
The aerials World Cup continues with the team event taking place on Sunday. Ladies' qualifications start at 8:40 local time (1:40 CET) with men set to go at 10:55 local time (3:55 CET). The finals are again scheduled for 13:30 local time (6:30 CET).
LIVE SCORING:
Live brackets will be available HERE
LIVE TV BROADCAST:
EUROSPORT ASIA - Livestream on EUROSPORT PLAYER
CBC - Canada
SFR 3 - France
NBC - USA - Livestream available HERE
Source: fis-ski.com
